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Charleston South Loop Parking

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:15 pm
by jmatthys
Went up to snowshoe the south loop trail yesterday, the 'normal' parking lot at the cathedral rock trailhead (@ the outhouse) is blockaded by concrete barriers. The official parking lot for winter fun is the echo trailhead parking lot (near the LVVWD well). This is the only parking lot that is plowed. To get from the echo trailhead to the SL trailhead, follow the echo trail, to the cathedral rock trail, then there are some paths across the avalanche debris field to the picnic area where the SL trail starts. I'm sure that the blockade is to prevent the parking and sledding chaos that happened on most weekends, but the downside is an extra 45mins to get from the parking lot to the SL trailhead, so plan accordingly.
As far as the snow conditions, about 1 - 1.5' unconsolidated on the SL trail, and about 3' unconsolidated in the Griffith chute. The waterfalls in the chute are not yet covered.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:33 pm
by MoapaPk
Thanks for the update. Mummy is looking better and better.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:16 am
by Mescalito345
jmatthys,

Four of us went to the South Loop Trail on December 20. We parked on the small gravel area along Kyle Canyon Road, where the road has several curves. We then hiked around the fence and followed the route that you described. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the trailhead.

Trailhead Parking

PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:52 pm
by jmatthys
Does anyone know if any of the trailhead parking in Kyle Canyon has been plowed?? Last Saturday, Echo trailhead parking lot (near the LVVWD well) and the North Loop parking area were under a few feet of snow.


*Update*
The Echo trailhead parking lot has been cleared along with a portion of the road back to the Mary Jane Falls parking lot. I snowshoed up Trail Canyon to the base of Mummy, seems to be a good base of snow (around 3-4') but was getting crusty on top and melting in the afternoon sun.